BellyFatNewshttps://bellyfatnews.website
Get UpdatesThu, 21 Mar 2019 19:56:19 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.10149724061When it comes to cell, gene therapy, manufacturing is ‘Question one, two and three’https://bellyfatnews.website/when-it-comes-to-cell-gene-therapy-manufacturing-is-question-one-two-and-three/
https://bellyfatnews.website/when-it-comes-to-cell-gene-therapy-manufacturing-is-question-one-two-and-three/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 19:56:18 +0000https://bellyfatnews.website/when-it-comes-to-cell-gene-therapy-manufacturing-is-question-one-two-and-three/L-R: Reni Benjamin, Elona Baum, Dennis Purcell, Patrick Rivers, Matthew Gline As cell and gene therapy become a focal point of investment in the public markets and private equity alike, one of the biggest barriers to them is still manufacturing. That was one of the takeaways in a panel discussion Thursday morning at the Alliance […]

As cell and gene therapy become a focal point of investment in the public markets and private equity alike, one of the biggest barriers to them is still manufacturing.

That was one of the takeaways in a panel discussion Thursday morning at the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine’s Cell & Gene Therapy Investor Day in New York, which focused on the investment outlook for the cell and gene therapy space. One panelist, Aquilo Capital Management principal Patrick Rivers, pointed out that the first concern he has for companies that approach his firm seeking funding is the state of their manufacturing – what kind of setup they have and whether they can scale.

Manufacturing has been a persistent issue with cell and gene therapies, in particular given the challenges of making personalized therapies for large numbers of patients, with little room for error or delay. While it happened some years ago, a manufacturing mishap experienced by Novartis when its CAR-T cell therapy, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), was in development illustrates how easily things can go wrong. In that incident, an account of which was published in October, a lentiviral vector that was supposed to engineer a patient’s T cells instead bound to a single malignant B cell, which may have allowed his cancer to hide from the CAR-T cells.

“Manufacturing becomes question one, two and three when getting to know a gene therapy company for the first time,” Rivers said during the panel discussion. Still, he said, performing due diligence on manufacturing can be a challenge because companies tend to regard it as “secret sauce” and are reluctant to talk about it on a granular level.

Fellow panelist Dennis Purcell, senior adviser of Aisling Capital, added that while clinical trials are pretty transparent, due diligence in manufacturing is more “below the surface.”

Roivant Sciences Chief Financial Officer Matthew Gline suggested that one potential solution lay in contract manufacturing, with a potentially significant opportunity for an “Illumina-type company,” referring to the San Diego-based genomic sequencing systems company. However, Raymond James Managing Director and panel moderator Reni Benjamin disagreed, saying in-house manufacturing is preferable because contract manufacturers often don’t do it properly.

A subsequent panel, on cell therapies in solid tumor cancers, showed how challenging it can be when companies rely on contract manufacturers. For the most part, companies developing cell and gene therapies have relied on contract manufacturing in the early stages of development.

But the need for scale – particularly in later-stage clinical and development and commercialization – requires a transition to in-house manufacturing. For example, after several years of relying on contract manufacturers, bluebird bioacquired a 125,000-square foot manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina, in November 2017. The plant will be used to make its gene therapies, LentiGlobin for blood disorders and Lenti-D for cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy, and CAR-T cell therapies for multiple myeloma, bb2121 and bb21217.

While Xyphos Chief Business Officer Thorsten Melcher said his company was using contractors, he acknowledged the challenges. “My answer is easy: We tap into existing infrastructure,” he said. “The answer is easy, but practicalities are quite hard because due to boom in the CAR-T space, a lot of established manufacturers have quite a lot of backlog.”

Other panelists’ companies took different approaches. For example, Atara Biotherapeutics Chief Scientific Officer Christopher Haqq said that despite requiring significant expenditure, his company chose to build its own 100,000-square foot plant. Kurt Gunter, chief medical officer of Cell Medica, said his company is relying on Baylor University’s manufacturing capability for Phase I development, but also scaling up with the help of Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult in Stevenage, UK.

]]>https://bellyfatnews.website/when-it-comes-to-cell-gene-therapy-manufacturing-is-question-one-two-and-three/feed/018750Can You Do Too Much Cardio?https://bellyfatnews.website/can-you-do-too-much-cardio/
https://bellyfatnews.website/can-you-do-too-much-cardio/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 19:37:14 +0000https://bellyfatnews.website/can-you-do-too-much-cardio/Though I started my fitness journey with a a fairly balanced combination of yoga and running, once I caught the “bug” so to speak, I was fully addicted to the thrill and endorphins of cardio. It started with SoulCycle — my first love — and spiraled (or spun, more accurately) into Barry’s Bootcamp, more distance […]

Though I started my fitness journey with a a fairly balanced combination of yoga and running, once I caught the “bug” so to speak, I was fully addicted to the thrill and endorphins of cardio. It started with SoulCycle — my first love — and spiraled (or spun, more accurately) into Barry’s Bootcamp, more distance running, boxing, and HIIT classes at Equinox. I was obsessed. And for good reason! I felt great. My body was riding a high, and I had never been so lean, so ripped. Why would I stop?

As it turns out, you can have too much of a good thing, even in your early-to-mid twenties, with an otherwise healthy body and joints. I started experiencing knee issues that ranged from mystery pain to clicking to full blown, excruciating, limping-down-the-street tendinitis.

Then I started seeing my personal trainer, Liz Letchford, MS, ATC. She assessed the issues contributing to my knee troubles and recommended that I slow it down on the cardio side, pause on longer distance running, and put more focus on strength training. I heard what she was saying, I agreed that it was good, but I couldn’t quite shake my addiction to cardio. Have you ever felt like that before? It’s a weird spot to be in.

So I added more strength training, but it only served to pack my schedule with more workout classes. I didn’t cut back on anything, just tacked on more.

The author (left) with personal trainer Liz Letchford at DIAKADI strength gym in San Francisco. Photo by Tracy Wright Corvo, courtesy of the author.

It took until sometime last year when my body hit a breaking point. Physical and psychological stress had peaked, and it manifested in my body in the form of near constant illness (I’m talking one flu, two weeks at a time, once a month for several months), mystery infections, severe panic attacks, chronic depression, and rupturing ovarian cysts. Fun times, y’all. And for someone who was “doing all the right things” — exercising a ton, eating right, sleeping well and often, etc. — it didn’t make any sense. In fact, it seemed counterintuitive, and I was more frustrated than ever.

As it turns out, you can have too much of a good thing.

I decided to take an all-out break: I hit the emergency brake and cleared my schedule for a complete mental and physical detox. It was the first time I had taken a few weeks off my cardio schedule in years. I eased back in with long walks (typically on the beach!), tons of low-impact reformer Pilates (super sculpting and challenging!), and the occasional SoulCycle class (I just can’t shake my love for that place). Once my health turned around — which happened more quickly than I could’ve imagined! — I added more forms of strength exercises, especially at home, using resistance bands, weights, a kettlebell, and bodyweight.

Not only has my weight remained unchanged, but I feel just as lean with way less work. I’ve also remained injury-free thanks to low-impact strength training and walking. But the greatest effect is one that’s body and mind. Flipping from a cardio-heavy schedule to one focused mostly on low-impact exercises and strength training has reduced the stress on my body. I feel less inflamed, I haven’t been sick in a year, I don’t have to take any anxiety medication, and even my digestion has improved.

I have friends who can do cardio seven days a week and never bat an eye. They’re in incredible shape, never get sick, and they have iron joints. That wasn’t me, a lesson I learned the hard way. Fortunately, I had enough sense to tune into my body (eventually) and figure out the best approach to turn this ship around. I’m so grateful for that intuition, and the people who helped me get to a happier, healthier place with this formula — I’m much stronger for it. Pun definitely intended.

]]>https://bellyfatnews.website/can-you-do-too-much-cardio/feed/018748Can You Swim While Wearing Contacts?https://bellyfatnews.website/can-you-swim-while-wearing-contacts/
https://bellyfatnews.website/can-you-swim-while-wearing-contacts/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 19:28:51 +0000https://bellyfatnews.website/can-you-swim-while-wearing-contacts/There might be a small part of you that wonders whether it’s safe to wear contacts in the pool — a part that’s inevitably cast aside when you simply do it anyway. After all, what’s the point of booking a gorgeous spot for holiday or Spring break if you can’t take in the sights? And […]

There might be a small part of you that wonders whether it’s safe to wear contacts in the pool — a part that’s inevitably cast aside when you simply do it anyway. After all, what’s the point of booking a gorgeous spot for holiday or Spring break if you can’t take in the sights? And if you swim more regularly, isn’t it safer to be more aware of your surroundings?

While those are valid points, it’s important to know the risks. “Swimming pools have Acanthamoeba, a type of amoeba that lives in the water, which can get trapped under contact lenses,” Arian Fartash, OD, a VSP network optometrist, told POPSUGAR. “Swimming with contacts can result in eye infections, irritation, and corneal issues.” That’s why doctors recommend against it.

However, there are steps you can take to make it safer. “If you still need to swim while wearing contact lenses, use daily disposable contacts,” Dr. Fartash said. “Be sure to also wear fitting goggles to avoid getting water in your eyes, and reduce your risk of eye irritation and infection.”

It might take some effort to find a pair that fit comfortably (if you find they run big, try goggles made for kids), but it’ll be worth to save you from an emergency visit to your eye doctor.

]]>https://bellyfatnews.website/can-you-swim-while-wearing-contacts/feed/018746How Blue Shield of California helped cut its members’ opioid use by more than halfhttps://bellyfatnews.website/how-blue-shield-of-california-helped-cut-its-members-opioid-use-by-more-than-half/
https://bellyfatnews.website/how-blue-shield-of-california-helped-cut-its-members-opioid-use-by-more-than-half/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 19:19:32 +0000https://bellyfatnews.website/how-blue-shield-of-california-helped-cut-its-members-opioid-use-by-more-than-half/California is not immune to the opioid epidemic sweeping the nation. While the proportion of opioid-related deaths in the state sits lower than national averages, there are still thousands of opioid overdose deaths, emergency department visits related to overdose and tens of millions of opioid prescriptions every year. San Francisco-based insurer Blue Shield of California […]

California is not immune to the opioid epidemic sweeping the nation. While the proportion of opioid-related deaths in the state sits lower than national averages, there are still thousands of opioid overdose deaths, emergency department visits related to overdose and tens of millions of opioid prescriptions every year.

San Francisco-based insurer Blue Shield of California launched its Narcotic Safety Initiative in 2015 with the goal of reducing opioid use among its members by 50 percent. Recently, the organization reported positive results that showed a 56 percent reduction in overall opioid use among members with chronic, non-cancer pain from 2014 levels.

“We know as pharmacists that there has been this pendulum swing in how prescribers are viewing the use of opioids as pain treatments,” said Salina Wong, Blue Shield of California’s director of clinical pharmacy programs.

“As we were identifying the risk that our members were carrying with opioid use we really felt that health plans have a major role in intervening and helping our providers prescribe more contentiously.”

The organization took a two-pronged approach to opioid use reduction: reducing the amount of people using chronically high levels of opioids and diverting people from getting on high levels opioids in the first place.

While Oxycontin is often identified as the “bad boy” of the opioid world, Wong said the overprescription problem goes far beyond that single example to medications like hydrocodone, which is often used to relieve low-level cough and cold symptoms. Another major priority was targeting extended-release opioids, which can lead to the build up of a physical tolerance and steadily increasing dosage.

Traditional methods of controlling nonprescription including changes coverage policies and formularies played a big role in the larger strategy to reduce prescriptions, which Wong said was based on a principal of “first do no harm.”

“For people that are already on high dosage you cannot and should not abruptly stop coverage because that could put them in a potentially risky situation,” Wong said. “We really focused our coverage policies on the new prescriptions to make sure they were prescribed for shorter periods of time and that doses were lower and tapered.”

Using the organization’s resources to combat issues with fraud, waste and abuse was also a major initiative.

Alongside this gradual decline in dosage and prescriptions was a correspondingly greater focus on patient support services like behavioral health treatments, CBT, as well as alternative non-opioid pain therapies.

Key to that effort was driving awareness and clinician education about prudent practices aligned with the CDC guidelines for prescribing opioids. The health plan set up CME courses for providers to get insight into alternative pain treatments, opioid-use disorder and practical advice on how actually to taper and decrease dosage.

That included training and policies around the use of the CURES California Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which helps to give providers visibility about whether others were involved in prescribing opioids to an individual patient. The use of CURES is currently mandated by state law, but Wong said Blue Shield was an early adopter of the technology.

Still, there is the open question of how these attempts to rein in opioid prescriptions could lead to unintended consequences for patients who may go without treatment or turn to illicit drugs as an alternative.

“We did try to asses that through our claims data by looking for hospitalization rates for overdoses and other symptoms of these unintended consequences. I don’t think we’re conclusive in what we’ve found, but if you look at the news anecdotally we’re still deep in this battle with things like illicit fentanyl,” Wong said.

“The primary message that I take comfort in is that a lot of people went down that path because they got their first prescription after a tooth extraction or surgery. This is about reaching people before they get so far down the road.”

Much of the training and education was focused on primary care providers as a way to give those clinicians the tools to better understand and handle specific issues related to opioid use and abuse in their daily practice.

“Because the opioid epidemic is so deep and so broad we can’t think that we can just refer to a specialist because there aren’t enough specialists to manage people at this point,” Wong said.

Like many other insurers, Blue Shield of California covers medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid-use disorder, but Wong said the organization often ran into federal regulations which limited the ability to offer the MAT as an option. She added that a major overarching priority for those combating opioid use and abuse it addressing that issue.

“What we have to tackle as all stakeholders in this situation is expand the range of prescribers to prescribe MAT, including primary care.” Wong said. “Part of that is destigmatizing the use of MAT and the prescribing of MAT and the care of people with addiction.”

]]>https://bellyfatnews.website/how-blue-shield-of-california-helped-cut-its-members-opioid-use-by-more-than-half/feed/018743Why I Stopped Intermittent Fastinghttps://bellyfatnews.website/why-i-stopped-intermittent-fasting/
https://bellyfatnews.website/why-i-stopped-intermittent-fasting/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 19:05:42 +0000https://bellyfatnews.website/why-i-stopped-intermittent-fasting/When I started intermittent fasting, it was during a period when I didn’t feel I had much control over anything. I was a year out of college and still working at my “for now” job: something I wasn’t passionate about but that was related enough that I took it “for now” while I looked for […]

When I started intermittent fasting, it was during a period when I didn’t feel I had much control over anything. I was a year out of college and still working at my “for now” job: something I wasn’t passionate about but that was related enough that I took it “for now” while I looked for other jobs.

The search was long, frustrating, and demoralising. But what really drove me crazy was my living situation. My job was hourly, and the pay wasn’t nearly enough to cover an apartment in the San Francisco area, so I lived with family to save money. I was grateful for their generosity, and it did let me save thousands of dollars a month, but it was in no way an ideal situation, for either me or them.

I’ve always been independent, and it grated on me that I couldn’t live on my own. Food was where I felt especially stifled; I wanted to buy the exact food I wanted and cook it the way I wanted. And I did cook, but living with three other people meant I had to take other dietary preferences into account, and they were often a lot different than my own.

I’m not a control freak, but feeling like I had such little power over my life was unhinging. And food was also how I compensated, by simply eating whatever there was, a lot of it, late into the night. The taste and texture and smell of the food anchored me to the moment, distracting me from the stress and unhappiness. But you know how the story goes: the eating felt good in the moment but made me bloated and unhappy afterward. In the end, it only exacerbated my feelings of being out of control because I couldn’t stop myself from eating even after I got full.

Why I Started Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting caught my eye for a lot of the same reasons it did for other people: the curbing of bloating and appetite, the feeling of control over your overeating, the weight loss and energy benefits. For me, though, the biggest draw was that I could do it right then, even in my current living situation. I didn’t have a lot of control over what I ate, but I could control when I ate, and the idea that that could help me feel better was a revelation.

And it worked. I did feel less bloated, less out of control, less tempted to eat when I knew I wasn’t hungry. Plus, it gave me something to look forward to at work: the countdown to my eating window. I thought I’d struggle with sticking to a strict eating window, but it actually felt like a relief to hit that time and know I didn’t need to eat anymore because I was satisfied. If I was still starving after 8 p.m., or if a hard morning workout left my stomach growling before noon, I would stretch my eating window somewhat, but I never felt the same urge to binge the way I had before.

Why I Stopped

In the space of a week at the beginning of 2019, a bunch of things changed in my life almost simultaneously: I started a new job, moved into a new apartment, and started commuting for about an hour and a half longer every day. I was deliriously happy. Even the commute wasn’t so bad because three miles of it was walking, which I used as a workout, and the rest was public transportation, where I could grab a window seat and read or write.

And finally, I was responsible for what I got to eat, 100 percent of the time. I chose overly ambitious new recipes, made quinoa by the buckets, burnt chicken, set off the apartment smoke detector, and was in general both the happiest and least competent new chef alive.

The one thing that wasn’t fitting in was intermittent fasting. With how different my schedule now was, I was surprised I didn’t see it coming. The shorter commute and more flexible hours at my old job had made IF so easy. Now, not only was I starting work earlier, but I was also getting more steps before 9 a.m. than I used to do in an entire day. At night, I’d get home 45 minutes before my eating window ended — not nearly enough time to make dinner and eat. And overall, I was just hungrier, and forcing myself to start and stop eating at certain times felt more and more like restriction and deprivation. The closer it got to 8 p.m., the more panicky I would get, trying to cram down food as fast as I could.

When a workout or an eating plan gets to that point where you have to force yourself to do it, where you no longer feel good about doing it, I think that’s a wake-up call. That’s your body saying that this isn’t right for you anymore. There were a number of reasons I felt like I needed a break from IF, but the one that ultimately made me stop was this: it had started to make me feel guilty and ashamed, and I didn’t want to associate those feelings with eating. In my experience, feeling guilty about your food choices does not help you eat healthier; it just makes you feel like sh*t. And it makes you so desperate to stop feeling bad that you eat more, because the food will at least make you happier for as long as it’s in your mouth.

Getting away from bad eating habits was part of the reason I started IF in the first place. These feelings of guilt and shame felt familiar, like my old unhappiness had changed shape and come back the second it found a chance.

I still love IF, and during a rough time, I really needed it. It taught me about my body, my eating habits, and what hunger and satiety feel like. In terms of physical effects, it’s helped me feel less bloated and less food-dependent. But it’s not the right tool for me right now. I’m so much happier now than I was when I started IF, and the impetus for starting it — that longing for independence and control over my life — isn’t as strong anymore because now I have that power in so many other areas. It’s OK to move on, and I don’t have to feel bad about it. Maybe clearing out that mental space, the area that was reserved for my eating window countdown, will make room for something even better.

]]>https://bellyfatnews.website/why-i-stopped-intermittent-fasting/feed/018741Gousto Recipe Box Review | Coachhttps://bellyfatnews.website/gousto-recipe-box-review-coach/
https://bellyfatnews.website/gousto-recipe-box-review-coach/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 18:44:59 +0000https://bellyfatnews.website/gousto-recipe-box-review-coach/Recipe boxes exist to make your life easier. You get all the ingredients you need to make your evening meal and clear step-by-step instructions delivered to your door. The reason I mention this is because Gousto’s decision not to separate out the ingredients in its deliveries by meal seems a bit… strange. I’m well aware […]

Recipe boxes exist to make your life easier. You get all the ingredients you need to make your evening meal and clear step-by-step instructions delivered to your door. The reason I mention this is because Gousto’s decision not to separate out the ingredients in its deliveries by meal seems a bit… strange.

I’m well aware this might seem precious given that all the food was delivered to my house, along with instructions, but other recipe box services divide up the ingredients and it does make things easier. Trying to sort through the vast array of spice sachets for four different meals in my Gousto box took a long time – especially when making one of the meals in the new Ten to Table range. Taking five minutes to find the ingredients for what should have been a ten-minute meal rather defeats the point.

However, petty concerns aside, I have nothing else negative to say about Gousto’s meals. Both the ten-minute and regular meals were simple to make and delicious. The recipes were the best-designed out of the six meal boxes I’ve tried, so I never felt rushed or had to juggle cooking several parts of the meal at once.

Both of the ten-minute meals I tried took closer to 15 minutes (plus the five minutes sifting through spice packets), but I took it fairly slow – ten minutes was within reach if I picked up the pace a bit. As you’d expect, these were simple meals – a prawn stir-fry and chicken fried rice – but I was impressed that you got a decent amount of vegetables in both, since sometimes veg are the first to go when designing rapid recipes.

The longer recipes were naturally a little more complex and interesting. I made pulled chicken for the first time, which was exciting, and learned what baharat chicken was.

Gousto changes up its recipe options regularly and has over 40 options to pick from each week. There are also options that cover most dietary preferences, including vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free. The latest addition to the roster is a series of ten Everyday Favourites, which includes the likes of spag bol, fish and chips, and chicken curry.

These classic recipes are as quick and easy to make as any other Gousto recipes, and guaranteed crowd-pleasers if you are cooking for the whole family. Per serving, they all also contain at least two of your five-a-day, though they are fairly calorific, ranging from 600-900 calories.

Those calories are put to good use, at least, because the recipes are delicious. I tried the Spicy-As-You-Like Chilli Con Carne and the Three Cheese Veg-Packed Pasta Bake and the latter in particular was sensational, probably the tastiest meal I’ve had from all the recipe boxes I’ve tried. The recipe card was instantly stashed away in my kitchen to be used again.

Another small thing I appreciated about Gousto’s meals was that, at least in the recipes I tried, there were no premade spice mixes – you got the individual herbs and spices you needed. This means slightly more work locating the correct sachets and opening them without spraying spices everywhere, but also means you can remake the recipe yourself easily. You don’t need to figure out what went in the spice mix; you just have to buy the ingredients.

A box with four meals for two people costs £34.99 from Gousto, which is the same price as HelloFresh for the same option, cheaper than Mindful Chef, where meals cost £5-£9pp, but more expensive than Morrisons’ Eat Fresh service, which costs £30 for four meals for two. I certainly found the recipes from Gousto more exciting and tasty than the Morrisons box, especially that outrageous pasta bake, but the latter does offer great value.

]]>https://bellyfatnews.website/gousto-recipe-box-review-coach/feed/018738Inova Health System partners with, invests $500K in Babyscriptshttps://bellyfatnews.website/inova-health-system-partners-with-invests-500k-in-babyscripts/
https://bellyfatnews.website/inova-health-system-partners-with-invests-500k-in-babyscripts/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 16:45:18 +0000https://bellyfatnews.website/inova-health-system-partners-with-invests-500k-in-babyscripts/Inova Health System in Falls Church, Virginia, has teamed up with Babyscripts, a startup with a platform for managing obstetrics. In addition to the strategic partnership, Inova has invested $500,000 in the Washington, D.C.-based company. As part of the partnership, Inova will deploy Babyscripts’ offering to its employee health plan, then to its entire system. […]

Inova Health System in Falls Church, Virginia, has teamed up with Babyscripts, a startup with a platform for managing obstetrics. In addition to the strategic partnership, Inova has invested $500,000 in the Washington, D.C.-based company.

As part of the partnership, Inova will deploy Babyscripts’ offering to its employee health plan, then to its entire system.

The startup’s offering seeks to assist women with prenatal and postpartum care. Patients get access to the Babyscripts mobile app and its remote monitoring technology, and doctors can then enroll them in one of the Babyscripts modules. Physicians receive patient data in real time and can intervene and alter individuals’ care pathways as needed.

“Babyscripts offers the opportunity to further the impact of our wellness programs on the lives of expecting families in the region,” Inova assistant vice president of sustainability and wellness Seema Wadhwa said in a news release. “We currently see over 11,000 people through our childbirth and parenting education, and we are pleased to expand our holistic care offerings for pregnant moms and their families with this additional tool.”

Last month, Babyscripts unveiled a collaboration with another health system, this one in Pennsylvania. The company and Penn Medicine teamed up to develop a solution for the remote monitoring of patients with postpartum hypertension. In addition to pinpointing those who need additional attention, the organizations seek to increase the number of blood pressure readings in the postpartum stage to catch rising blood pressure sooner, decrease the length of hospital stay and reduce readmissions after delivery.

And the $500,000 investment from Inova isn’t the only funding Babyscripts has gained as of late. In January, the D.C. startup said it secured a $6 million financing round led by Philips. StartUp Health and NueCura Partners also participated.

In addition to the $6 million, Babyscripts said it plans to partner with the Mother/Baby unit of Philips Healthcare. The aim is to extend Babyscripts’ footprint through Philips’ existing customer base.

]]>https://bellyfatnews.website/inova-health-system-partners-with-invests-500k-in-babyscripts/feed/018736What Has Antoni From Queer Eye Said About His Addiction?https://bellyfatnews.website/what-has-antoni-from-queer-eye-said-about-his-addiction/
https://bellyfatnews.website/what-has-antoni-from-queer-eye-said-about-his-addiction/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 14:03:11 +0000https://bellyfatnews.website/what-has-antoni-from-queer-eye-said-about-his-addiction/Over the course of three seasons so far, the revival of Queer Eye has proven that it’s about so much more than just external makeovers. The Fab Five head into each episode with some serious goals, bringing with them plenty of expertise to help their makeover recipients improve all parts of their lives and resulting […]

Over the course of three seasons so far, the revival of Queer Eye has proven that it’s about so much more than just external makeovers. The Fab Five head into each episode with some serious goals, bringing with them plenty of expertise to help their makeover recipients improve all parts of their lives and resulting in some incredibly emotional stories. The third season’s second episode brings us Joey, whose attempts at improving his life include getting to reconnect with his son. When he reveals that part of the rift came because of his alcoholism, Antoni Porowski revealed that he could relate on an unexpected level.

“I have a very intimate relationship with addiction, and I know what it’s like,” he told Joey. Antoni applauded Joey for working on himself and putting that part of his life behind him, and he revealed a little bit more about how he had handled his own struggles. Food, as it turns out, played a big part for our favourite avocado-loving food guru.

“When my life was a complete mess, when I was trying to come out of it, food was always a way where I kind of made myself feel better,” he says. “I know we touched on where you’ve come from in dealing with addiction. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t care about myself, so I definitely didn’t care about anybody else. When I came out of it, it was suddenly like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m getting up early in the morning: not because I’m up from the night before, but because I genuinely want to.'”

This was the first time that Antoni explicitly discussed his addiction, but not the first time he’s alluded to it. In a Vulture profile in February 2018, he mentioned a past with addiction in an aside during a discussion of a book, A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara.

“It forced me to look at some aspects of growing up that I chose to put away, but it was done so beautifully that it made it okay to start thinking about it again . . . Basically it deals with addiction and some of the emotional abuse in there as well. Those were things I could relate to on a pretty personal level.

]]>https://bellyfatnews.website/what-has-antoni-from-queer-eye-said-about-his-addiction/feed/018734Emma Roberts and Evan Peters Break Up 2019https://bellyfatnews.website/emma-roberts-and-evan-peters-break-up-2019/
https://bellyfatnews.website/emma-roberts-and-evan-peters-break-up-2019/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 13:48:49 +0000https://bellyfatnews.website/emma-roberts-and-evan-peters-break-up-2019/Emma Roberts and Evan Peters are no longer together, Us Weekly reports. According to the publication, the two have called off their engagement, and the Scream Queens actress is now dating Garrett Hedlund. “Emma and Evan were heading for a split and now are just friends,” a source tells the publication. “Evan has moved out. […]

Accordingly to Us Weekly, Emma and Garrett have been friends for a while, but reportedly just starting seeing each other romantically. The two were recently spotted getting cosy while walking around LA. The Triple Frontier star reportedly “had his arm around [Emma] for a bit and then they were holding hands.” Garrett was previously in a relationship with his On the Road costar Kirsten Dunst, who he dated from 2011 to 2016.

]]>https://bellyfatnews.website/emma-roberts-and-evan-peters-break-up-2019/feed/018732Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease drug crashes in Phase III testinghttps://bellyfatnews.website/biogens-alzheimers-disease-drug-crashes-in-phase-iii-testing/
https://bellyfatnews.website/biogens-alzheimers-disease-drug-crashes-in-phase-iii-testing/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 13:46:53 +0000https://bellyfatnews.website/biogens-alzheimers-disease-drug-crashes-in-phase-iii-testing/Shares of biotech giant Biogen were down sharply in pre-market trading as the company announced the failure of its leading drug for Alzheimer’s disease. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen – together with its development partner, Japanese drugmaker Eisai – said Thursday morning that they were discontinuing the Phase III ENGAGE and EMERGE studies of aducanumab in mild […]

Shares of biotech giant Biogen were down sharply in pre-market trading as the company announced the failure of its leading drug for Alzheimer’s disease.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen – together with its development partner, Japanese drugmaker Eisai – said Thursday morning that they were discontinuing the Phase III ENGAGE and EMERGE studies of aducanumab in mild cognitive impairment and dementia due to Alzheimer’s. The decision was based on results of an independent data monitoring committee’s futility analysis, which indicated the trials were not likely to meet their primary endpoint. Extensions of earlier-stage studies were also halted.

Shares of Biogen were down more than 26 percent pre-market on the Nasdaq following the news.

“This disappointing news confirms the complexity of treating Alzheimer’s disease and the need to further advance knowledge in neuroscience,” Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos said in a statement.

Aducanumab belongs to a drug class targeting amyloid beta, based on the hypothesis that accumulation of the peptide is the primary cause of Alzheimer’s disease, making it the main focus of Alzheimer’s research over the last 20 years. But it hasn’t been without controversy, as all efforts to develop drugs targeting amyloid beta have been futile. Now, that string of failures includes aducanumab.

Analysts from SVB Leerink wrote that they anticipate that Biogen’s stock will likely fall to $240-260 per share – it closed at $320.59 Wednesday. However, analyst Geoffrey Porges and his team wrote, they “cannot find any near term catalysts that would help the stock recover back above $300.” Nevertheless, they wrote, they had given the aducanumab program only a 35 percent chance of success in their modeling, having many concerns regarding amyloid beta as a target given the failures of multiple monoclonal antibodies targeting the peptide in recent years.

Meanwhile, Cowen analyst Phil Nadeau agreed, adding that the announcement removes the biggest potential opportunities from Biogen’s pipeline. He further wrote that aducanumab’s clear ability to remove amyloid beta from the brain in Phase Ib testing made it hard to see how other monoclonal antibodies with the same target – including Biogen’s own BAN 2401, currently in Phase II studies – could succeed. “Therefore, [Biogen] is unlikely to get any credit for BAN 2401 unless and until it can produce positive Phase III data,” he wrote.

According to a 2017 paper in the journal Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs surveyed discontinued drugs for Alzheimer’s disease from between 2010 and 2015. These included bapineuzumab, developed by Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen subsidiary, and Eli Lilly & Co.’s solanezumab. In both cases, the drugs failed in randomized Phase III clinical trials despite previously showing efficacy in prior studies.